Lanny’s December Dividend Income Summary

Happy New Year everyone! I hope everyone was able to ring in the turn of the calendar with their loved ones and are having a healthy & happy new years thus far. This was the time period when everyone made their final pushes to achieve their goals for the year and ultimately & hopefully have ended up in a better position than they were a year ago. This is also one of my favorite month’s worth of dividend income, due to it being a quarter-end and the last month of the year. With the weather being sunny and melting the snow into the new year, let’s see if my portfolio was able to heat up and produce heft dividends for December!

Dividend income

This was another record month in December, I received a total of $1,680.33. Very consistent names here, with a decent number of entities sending checks my way, see the table below.

With the 24 different entities paying me above, this is greater than the 20at this point last year. The big differences here are Kraft (KHC) paying in December this go around, T. Rowe Price (TROW) providing a nice chunk in there, as well as a massive Archer Daniels (ADM) stopping by with over $40. Lastly – VTSMX, my HSA mutual fund, came in with almost $21 this quarter! So damn lucky. Just… wow. A record month, the highest total I have ever received, just cannot believe the amount. I also had 13 taxable entities pay over $30 each!

Similarly, I have split out between the individual stock amounts and the retirement accounts, as the ” – R” indicates a retirement account dividend (or the furthest column to the right). I separate these two, as I like to know what portion of my dividend income is coming from those retirement accounts that I cannot touch until 59.5 (barring any other usage rule I could use). Here, it shows that I received a total of $1,007.53 (the highest total I’ve ever received for retirement accounts) or 60% of my income from retirement accounts and the other 40% was from my individual taxable account portfolio. This is almost double the income from last year’s retirement accounts and can be primarily associated with my new tax efficient strategy deployment. Additionally, this shows from retirement accounts that I’m all ready for my set it and forget it mentality to keep that income going. To see my portfolio – one can go to our portfolio summary page.

Dividend income year over year comparison

2015:

2016:

Overall, the growth stood at $602.29 or 56% from last year to this year. WOW. Talk about massive growth. Again, this is primarily attributable to me maximizing my 401(k) at work, hence the almost three-times-the-sized VINIX dividend this year versus 2015. Additionally, this year there was solid growth through most of the names that had paid me a dividend in December; in fact, they all have provided a higher dividend versus last year!!! Talk about a solid finish to the year, I can only think about what next December will actually bring if this keeps up, as I plan on maximizing the plans again, as well as the HSA mutual fund. Looking forward to 2017, that’s for sure and one can see my goals for 2017 here.

dividend increases

A month wouldn’t be a month without high quality companies increasing their dividend! See the small chart below for the details on the dividend increases announced this month that are holdings in my portfolio.

Alright, so what happened here? First, I love dividend growth. Second – one surprise in Norwood (NWFL), as they acquired a bank this year to almost double their size. Why was this a surprise? With the acquisition, I wasn’t sure on their capital/liquidity position to increase their dividend. Obviously, they are comfortable and a solid 3.22% increase was more than welcomed. Pfizer (PFE), is becoming almost like AT&T (T), except that PFE is at least going 2 cents each year on their dividend increase, which due to their lower dividend amount, calculates out to a great & consistent growth rate of between 6-8%. Will 2017 be there that PFE increases 3 cents instead of 2? Well, we will have to wait almost 12 months for that! All in all, $10.13 from dividend increases, which at 3.50%, is equivalent to a $289 stock purchase. I’ll take this any day.

dividend income conclusion & Summary

With a 56% increase, I am so lucky to be able to have the option & opportunity to do such a thing. If I am able to have a nice 10-15% growth for next year, I’ll be ecstatic. However, it could be way higher than that, at least I have 11 months to get the engine started!

As I discussed with my NEW updated – normal monthly expenditures at the moment, this $1,680 would cover 171% of my average $984 monthly expense for my house, including utilities; up from last year and covers all of my utilities and house insurance. Obviously there is quite a bit of retirement account income here, but that all can be changed, subject to employing additional strategies to shift the account type. In the end – all of the investing from last year and moves this year, show being frugal to save 60% of my income,that every dollarcounts,has helped me in achieving lofty goals that I set in place for my 2016 year. However, we all know that I am VERY excited for 2017 to come!

How did your last month turn out? More/better than expected? Learn anything new about what to do going forward? Stepping closer & closer to financial freedom? Would love to hear how it all went! Any other comments or suggestions, since I have a full year to think about them now? Haha, I hope everyone had a very relaxed and enjoyable holiday season, 2017, here we come!

I always end up doing something different in my response back with an acronym for you haha.

Very good point that I never mention – those retirement accounts are tax-free dividends, I love it. As you said it – the snowball keeps going and going and… let’s just build a mountain of snow at this point.

Very impressed! Congratulations on absolutely crushing the end of 2016 and moving onto 2017 with my records to beat. Great mix of companies and funds as well, as I’d like to add a few of them to my portfolio soon. Best wishes for 2017 and I look forward to following along.

What better way to go out than a monster div income month? What’s funny/nice – is that this is really the example of my earlier tax strategies and how it’s paid off so far. More to come in March, for sure, as I’ll have another few months under the belt. Really curious to see how far this thing takes off. Keep up the work over there, as well!

Rock on Lanny! That’s awesome. DEC was a record month for me as well ($2658) so I was pumped as well, despite completely failing at my 2016 goal. Keep it up and I know you’ll crush 2017 like you did this year as well.

Dan, or should I say DAYUM – based on the income you brought in from December, holy crap man!! HAHA, just awesome, and you’ll be smacking $3K around like it’s nothing soon. Let’s keep the grind on Dan, LETS GO!!

That’s some pretty impressive growth right there!. I had a record month as well, but it was not even close to your $1,600. Perhaps in a few years. That’s almost two months of your housing expenses if you think about it, and you’re getting paid just to wake up in the morning.

Thank you THANK YOU!! We are all having record months and that’s what it’s all about. You know when you lift weights, and then you are able to lift a little heavier and you’re able to do a few more reps? That’s what’s happening for us here – all of that sweat is paying off big time here.

And yes.. thought about it and I’m loving it.. if only I can get that to 3 months… hmm.. haha challenge accepted.

Phew, I know, it’s weird looking back up at the chart. The dividend reinvestment was really awesome as well from the dividends received. Definitely helped me increase that forward income without doing much : )

Sweet! Congratulations on your best dividend income month ever. The year over year increase is extreme. Well done! My December was not so good from a growth rate perspective but I consider that a minor bump in the road to financial independence.

I didn’t have nearly as good of a month as you. I saw dividend income of $926.51 but I’m not complaining 🙂 Most of my investments are in passive index funds but I do have water stocks that have been performing for me the past couple of years.

Great way to end the year. Showing some massive growth in the last month is always a reason to smile! Also very nice to see that all the strategies you have laid out last year are working out big time 🙂

Thank you very much – the growth YoY has been awesome, the possibilities 2017 will bring pumps me up.

Thanks for noticing that as well. I tell ya what – come tax time – we’ll really see if they paid off – as I had to write around $2K for taxes in total last year, OOPH! So, excited to see what damage it is this year.

642 euro isn’t modest at all! Need to nod your head on that one – congrats! Pumped that we all had very solid December months. Looking forward to warmer weather, though, freezing here in Cleveland today! Thanks again CF, and talk soon.

What’s not to like about these results. Super solid all around. Congrats on hitting a new record for passive income earned as well as a very nice year over year gain. Fresh buys, dividend raises and even some reinvestment all help bring about these great results. Always enjoy following your progress. Look forward to the monthly round up among our fellow peers. Thanks for sharing.

Nice, I would be interested in you return rates. I have only recently started but it looks like with current returns and the amount I am able to invest it would take me around 15 years to do what you did in 6… Either you are getting much better return rates or are able to invest significantly more! Either way well done & good luck.